The Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir - Pleasing Lyrics

Video

The Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir - Pleasing (Live Performance Video)

Meaning & Inspiration

That opening line, asking for the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart to be acceptable, it hits me because it’s pulling straight from the Psalms. It’s that old prayer—let them be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Hearing it sung like this, I have to stop and think about whether I actually mean it when I say it. It’s easy to sing about being an offering, totally devoted, but then I look at my actual day and it’s a mess. Does God really want my offering when it feels so fractured?

The song puts this weight on our own life being something we give back to Him, which is where Romans 12 usually jumps into my head, about offering our bodies as a living sacrifice. That’s what’s supposed to be our reasonable service, right? The lyrics focus a lot on our intent—wanting to honor Him in all we do. I catch myself wondering if I’m leaning too hard on my own promise to live a certain way, like saying I give my word to live this life for Him. It sounds noble, but it makes me nervous, because I know how quickly I fail at that. If it all depends on my ability to make my life pleasing to Him, I’m in trouble.

Still, the song keeps coming back to the idea of His faithfulness never changing, which is the only thing that keeps it from sounding like I’m just trying to earn points. If He wasn't already faithful, my attempts to be pleasing would just be empty. But I find myself questioning the focus—are we trying to make ourselves acceptable to Him, or is the whole point of the gospel that we are already accepted in the Beloved? It’s a tension I can’t quite smooth out. I want my life to matter and to be a sweet aroma, but I have to wonder if I’m trying to bring Him something He already provided through Christ. I’m left wondering if the desire to please Him is the fruit of His grace, or if I’m just walking back into the trap of thinking I have to be enough.